Phrasal verbs

punch in (or out)

The greatest feeling I get as an entrepreneur is when I go into the back, into the facility here and to see the employees punching out on their time cards to go home and on payday to know that I've contributed to their livelihood.

The absolute worst work condition we ever heard about was a 1960's factory where the owner made all workers punch out on the time clock to use the bathroom.

Origin

The punch that means ‘to strike’ was first used in the sense ‘to puncture or prod’, which is probably where the term for a tool for making holes comes from. Ultimately, the word goes back to the same source as point and poignant. A person doing something that might be thought to be beyond their capacity or ability can be said to be punching above their weight. This is a boxing metaphor—contests are generally arranged between opponents of nearly equal weight. The drink punch, first mentioned in English in 1600, has a completely different source. It seems to come, via Hindi, from Sanskrit pañca ‘five, five kinds of’. The drink originally had five ingredients—strong alcohol, water, fruit juices, spices, and sugar. Finally, there is the Punch that appears in the early 19th-century expression pleased as Punch (or proud as Punch), referring to the gleeful self-satisfaction of the grotesque hook-nosed male character of the Punch and Judy Show. Punch was originally a dialect term for a short, fat person and is a short form of Punchinello, the name of a stout hook-nosed character in traditional Italian theatre.

Origin

The punch that means ‘to strike’ was first used in the sense ‘to puncture or prod’, which is probably where the term for a tool for making holes comes from. Ultimately, the word goes back to the same source as point and poignant. A person doing something that might be thought to be beyond their capacity or ability can be said to be punching above their weight. This is a boxing metaphor—contests are generally arranged between opponents of nearly equal weight. The drink punch, first mentioned in English in 1600, has a completely different source. It seems to come, via Hindi, from Sanskrit pañca ‘five, five kinds of’. The drink originally had five ingredients—strong alcohol, water, fruit juices, spices, and sugar. Finally, there is the Punch that appears in the early 19th-century expression pleased as Punch (or proud as Punch), referring to the gleeful self-satisfaction of the grotesque hook-nosed male character of the Punch and Judy Show. Punch was originally a dialect term for a short, fat person and is a short form of Punchinello, the name of a stout hook-nosed character in traditional Italian theatre.

Origin

The punch that means ‘to strike’ was first used in the sense ‘to puncture or prod’, which is probably where the term for a tool for making holes comes from. Ultimately, the word goes back to the same source as point and poignant. A person doing something that might be thought to be beyond their capacity or ability can be said to be punching above their weight. This is a boxing metaphor—contests are generally arranged between opponents of nearly equal weight. The drink punch, first mentioned in English in 1600, has a completely different source. It seems to come, via Hindi, from Sanskrit pañca ‘five, five kinds of’. The drink originally had five ingredients—strong alcohol, water, fruit juices, spices, and sugar. Finally, there is the Punch that appears in the early 19th-century expression pleased as Punch (or proud as Punch), referring to the gleeful self-satisfaction of the grotesque hook-nosed male character of the Punch and Judy Show. Punch was originally a dialect term for a short, fat person and is a short form of Punchinello, the name of a stout hook-nosed character in traditional Italian theatre.

Origin

The punch that means ‘to strike’ was first used in the sense ‘to puncture or prod’, which is probably where the term for a tool for making holes comes from. Ultimately, the word goes back to the same source as point and poignant. A person doing something that might be thought to be beyond their capacity or ability can be said to be punching above their weight. This is a boxing metaphor—contests are generally arranged between opponents of nearly equal weight. The drink punch, first mentioned in English in 1600, has a completely different source. It seems to come, via Hindi, from Sanskrit pañca ‘five, five kinds of’. The drink originally had five ingredients—strong alcohol, water, fruit juices, spices, and sugar. Finally, there is the Punch that appears in the early 19th-century expression pleased as Punch (or proud as Punch), referring to the gleeful self-satisfaction of the grotesque hook-nosed male character of the Punch and Judy Show. Punch was originally a dialect term for a short, fat person and is a short form of Punchinello, the name of a stout hook-nosed character in traditional Italian theatre.